Tomas Holmstrom wore number 96 while playing left winger for the Detroit Red Wings in the 2010/2011 NHL season. His salary for the time he spent on the ice that season was reportedly $2,250,000. The total team salary for the Detroit Red Wings was reportedly $64,325,000, so his salary represented 3.5% of that total team payroll. That season, the average salary for a player on the Detroit Red Wings was $2,474,038, while the median salary was $1,250,000. He played a total of 73 games that season, with 18 goals and 19 assists - a total of 37 points. To find out how much he earned per game played, we can divide his reported salary by the number of games played. He earned $30,821.92 per game. Tomas Holmstrom had a plus/minus of -6, 62 PIM (penalties in minutes), 10 PP (power play goals), 0 SH (short-handed goals), 1 GWG (game winning goals), and took 125 shots. He had a shooting percentage in the 2010/2011 season of 14.40%. We can divide his salary by the number of goals scored, as well as by the number of points (goals plus assists), if we want to try to evaluate his performance strictly on offense. His salary per goal scored was $125,000 and his salary per point was $60,811.

Don't forget about taxes. Although each NHL season is composed of months two separate calendar years, having a salary in the United States of $2,250,000 we can estimate that he would have to hand over $762,784 in federal income taxes. For comparison, that is about the same amount of tax as the tax paid by 94 median high school teachers, 107 median police officers, or 151 median fire fighters. After paying the federal government, he would have $1,487,216 left over. However, he may still need to use some of that money to pay state or city taxes as well.

About the author

Author: Mark McCracken is a corporate trainer and author living in Higashi Osaka, Japan. He is the author of thousands of online articles as well as the Business English textbook, "25 Business Skills in English".